Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and was launched in October 2010. Instagram was launched as a free mobile app. The name Instagram has been derived from the combination of Instant cameras and Telegrams. According to the founders of Instagram it’s not easy for everyone to carry their cameras every time they go out. With the time, the mobile phone cameras got better, but the quality of pictures were not so good. That’s how Kevin and Mike felt the need of Instagram. They created Instagram to cater three major problems. Improving the quality of picture with the use of filters, sharing on multiple platforms in a single go, improvement in the uploading experience.

Instagram is gaining popularity day by day.5 years ago when Instagram was launched, reaching 400 million users was a distant dream. Out of this 400 million users 75% of the users are from outside USA. Most of the Instagram users are from Brazil, Japan And Indonesia. Instagram has more active users than its rival Twitter. The growth of Instagram is even more than its parent company Facebook. According to the statistics, Instagram has grown by 23% where as Facebook only by 3%.Most of the Instagram users are below 35 years of age and are women. The Nielson study has revealed that Instagram’s Indian monthly active users have more than doubled in the past one year.

According to Wikipedia, Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing, and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. Instagram is a fun and quirky way to share your life with your friends with pictures and videos. Instagram is a simple way to capture and share the world’s moments. Instagram transforms your everyday pictures and videos into masterpiece. It not only allows users to share their pictures and videos with thie friend, family and relatives but also with the ones who are not known to us like renowned bollywood, Hollywood and sports personalities. Everyday when you open Instagram, It will show you new videos and pictures shared not only by you and your friend but also be renowned personalities across the world.

Offerings of Instagram

Photo Sharing

You can take pictures within the app or use photos that already exist in your camera roll. You can give your photo a title, which is helpful and fun. Photos can be instantly shared, not only on Instagram, but also on the other social networking sites like facebook, twitter, Flickr, Posterous and Tumblr. You can also connect with your foursquare account and tag your photos with location. By default, photos are public on Instagram. If you want to keep your photos private, you can choose that option also.

Photo Manipulation:

The most important feature of Instagram is the fact that they have 11 different filters you can use to up the interest of your pix. Even boring photos can look amazing with some of these filters. Filters range from retro to futuristic. A same picture can look different with the use of different filters of Instagram. This can be clearly understood with the help of the following images. Images will give you better idea about this feature of Instagram.

Lux:

Lux is also an important feature of Instagram. It is useful for editing the photographs. The button with a picture of sun is called as the Lux effect. This allows you to adjust exposure and contrast.

Social:

Instagram is just like other social network and is based around having friends or followers. On Instagram you ‘follow’ people. At the top of your profile (or anyone’s profile) you will see the username, profile pic, how many photos have been uploaded, how many followers the account has, and how many they are following. When you follow someone, their photos show up in your stream. The only other things you can do are ‘like‘photos and comment on them. . .

Finding People to Follow:

Instagram lets you see which of your twitter and Facebook friends are using Instagram and easily start following them. You can also use ‘Invite Friends’ feature like Facebook. Instagram will also suggest users about add friends.

Video Sharing:

Instagram not only allows users to share pictures. But It also allows to share videos. Earlier it was confined to share pictures only. Users can record and share videos on Instagram lasting for up to 15 seconds.

Multiple Sharing:

Instagram allows multiple sharing of pictures. A picture once clicked can be shared on various social websites like Facebook, Twitter.

Instagram Tagline is capture and share the world’s moments.The main reason for Instagram popularity is its virtual presence. It is rightly said that a pictures say thousands of words. Instagram founders believe that world come closer with the pictures. This year the number of Instagram users will create another milestone.